Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-08-27
DAILY HERALD.
THE FASHION IN PETS.
/ .Alligaters Carried around I'm the
Pockets Of Society,s Danes.

OCA0g8 - SVChCsy'S ASes ssASSs
Dick, the canary, is dead. He was
carried off by an influenza during the
long, cold spring. Gretchen; the
opened a window one
fogRy morning without moving his
cage, and there is mourning in the
land for Dick. There is faint tinge
of regret for Fido, the pug, who is so
delightfully."- ugly, with his black nose
and short face, but who is
out of style - or going out,
which is worse-and so must
leave his soft cushions and take off
his embroidered blanket, poor thing |!
The season is just at hand when deal
ers in birds and animals are looking
about them for novelties, when the
fashions in pets are being set for an
other year, when caprice in feathered
and four-footed life are offered every
day to tempt any lady's whim, when
the town house is closed, the winters
menagerie scattered to the four winds
of heaven and the new assortment OF
fayorites taken to the country for a
summers domestication and breaking
in.
Are there fashions in pets? Dear
me, yes. The real dog lover or bird
lover is rare, and twice in three times
owns neither dog nor bird. A few
wears ago every man OF fashion wore a
spitz dog; now you might go into every
house on Murray hill and a good
many other hills besides and not find
one. Some spitz dog so far forgot
himself as to snap at his mistress S
white finger, mayhap, and so the ru-
NOR got abroad that the spitz family
is surly and ugly-it is false, there are
no more faithful and affectionate pets
in the brute creation-and a deal OF
newspaper talk ensued; but the ban
ishment of the spits was mostly due
to his getting out of style. He had
been king, but his subjects had
wearied of his reign. And that more
recent tavorite, the pug-he who has
lorded it over the poodle so long-is
he not to give place to his hated rival
again this fall? And, except at dog
shows, who ever sees genuine King
Charles spaniel, of whose silken hair
our grandmothers made so much :?
And the big dogs, the mastiffs and
settlers, that every young lady led
about with her last summer, where
have they betaken themselves?
Assuredly fashion prescribes pets as
well as gowns. When the grand dame
murmurs in her doggie's ear that he is
her darling it is always with the saw
ing clause unexpressed, $50 long,
dear, as you are the style, when that
changes, pet, you must CO." The
dogs special physician and nurse, his
daily airings on the promenade, his
receptions to other elete doglets-
these are all mockery and emptiness,
and deceive not the elect if their OBJ
ject is to make the beholder believe
that there is once in dozen times
any affection wasted on the pampered
beastie.
People can like dogs. l am inclined
to believe that Lotta, the actress, likes
the enormous mastiff she is rollickine
with this summer, as she has played
with it great many summers while
off duty. Olive Logan is fond of the
French terrier she has had for almost
twenty years; but folks of fashion
take to one dog this year and another
next as they fondle the breeds that
Sir Walter Scott preferred until Byron
eclipsed the older poet, affected the
Newfoundland and led the whole Eng
lish-speaking world after them.
The weest OF familiars of the animal
kingdom, a good deal affected by New
York women just now, are the mar
mosets, not quite so big as new borr
kitten. They cost from $40 pair up
wards, and last winter you might have
seen a woman or two sleighing in the
park with marmosets instead of /;
muf in her lap to warm her hands
There are monkeys which are some
times taken into houses for pets, bu
which are usually bundled out agail
about as soon-women never lik
monkeys = and, especially sine
the rush to Southern resorts began
alligators, which have way peculiar
ly their own of making themselves a
home in New York drawing-rooms
These latter sustain life on a diet O
raw beef. They require only slant
ing log to bask on and tray of waite
under the piano to be reasonably hap
py, and, fortunately for their career a
pets, they are in no haste usually t,
grow big enough to swallow the bah,
or commit much havoc in a well reg
ulated home.
"Why," said an old man who keep
a curiosity shop, the other day, :"
have sold over fifty alligators thi
spring-some for women to carry il
their pockets, and as | promised t,
come around and feed some of them
it keeps me pretty busy. l reckon
some folks'll want to be keepin' whale
next"
There is less change, probably, il
fashion in birds than in animals. TIL,
canary holds his own as he has fol
years. He is small, he is neat anC
dainty, he is cheap, he is reasonabl,
pretty and he is an unmatched song
ster. But the big wholesale birt
stores, like Reiche's on Park row
where the fashions are seen yea
ahead and where fortunes in pet
change hands yearly could tell you o
scores of singers of some of which yo,
never heard, perhaps OF which ther
is constant demand, with now an
then a well-defined craze Parrot
which talk may cost $500, and parrot
that don't may be bought for a song
no pun intended, fer parrots don
SING. Paroquets and macaws, wit
their brilliant plumage, are chose
not infrequently to match the furnish
nighing of a richly colored room
while even such coarse birds as til
blackbird, and such quite unmusic,
ones as wood pigeons find some fave
as pets.
Among the most pathetic of pc
are "mules" or hybrids. The con
monest are the hybrids of the canar,
the goldfinch. These betray some
the characteristics of both parent
The half goldfnch, for example, hs
some of the canary yellow about
and some of the finch's bulkier heaC
1t is fine singer, as is the chaffinc
bvbrid. A moderately popular bin